The Early Word: Palin Dominates Convention Talk

ST. PAUL — While aides to the McCain campaign fanned out across the airwaves this morning to deal with the fallout from the revelations regarding Gov. Sarah Palin, convention planners prepared to retool some of the planned schedule now that Hurricane Gustav’s threat has dissipated a bit.

Among the more unusual guests who may speak tonight is Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut and a close ally of Senator John McCain. Mr. Lieberman, who has been a sharp critic of his fellow Democrats on the Iraq war and national security issues, acknowledged this morning in TV interviews that yes, he had been fully vetted while under consideration as a potential running mate on the G.O.P. ticket. But as we and others have reported, his position on abortion rights wasn’t going over so well with the conservative base of the party. On morning news shows, Mr. Lieberman cites Ms. Palin’s record as a fighter as one of the reasons she was selected.

Some appearances have been shuffled around — former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, the convention’s keynote speaker, will now speak Wednesday. President Bush, who canceled his appearance here because of the storm, will address the convention via video tonight. Carl Hulse has more on the changes here.

Those revelations, coming on the opening day of the Republican National Convention, raised questions about how thoroughly the McCain campaign vetted Governor Palin before Mr. McCain announced her as his No. 2.

The Times’s Elisabeth Bumiller reports that the team assigned to check into her background did not arrive in Alaska until last Thursday, just a day before her official unveiling as the V.P. candidate and that Mr. McCain had actually hoped to choose Mr. Lieberman to join the ticket.

In addition to her daughter’s pregnancy, other details about Ms. Palin’s background have emerged on the national scene in the last 24 hours: “Among other less attention-grabbing news of the day: it was learned that Ms. Palin now has a private lawyer in a legislative ethics investigation in Alaska into whether she abused her power in dismissing the state’s public safety commissioner; that she was a member for two years in the 1990s of the Alaska Independence Party, which has at times sought a vote on whether the state should secede; and that Mr. Palin was arrested 22 years ago on a drunken-driving charge,” Ms. Bumiller writes.

Mr. McCain’s campaign, which has shown itself adept at handling the news media, tried to influence coverage of the disclosure by releasing it as Hurricane Gustav was slamming into the Gulf Coast. (The Palin news was not mentioned on the “CBS Evening News” until 15 minutes into the newscast.) It was also by every appearance tucked into a series of problematic tidbits released about Ms. Palin’s past, including news that her husband, Todd, was arrested for driving while impaired in 1986.

“We are going to flush the toilet,” said Tucker Eskew, who is a senior adviser to Ms. Palin, describing the campaign’s plans for Labor Day, when much of the nation was busy with family and social activities.

The Washington Post has a report about how Ms. Palin hired a lobbying firm to bring almost $27 million federal funds to Wasilla: “There was $500,000 for a youth shelter, $1.9 million for a transportation hub, $900,000 for sewer repairs, and $15 million for a rail project,” the Post’s Paul Kane reports.

And the Wall Street Journal’s Stephanie Simon captures the conversations taking place across the country about Ms. Palin’s ability to balance her family life and run for vice president, and finds some evidence of a reversal in the discussions of liberals and conservatives:

It was liberals who found themselves questioning whether Gov. Palin can adequately care for her growing family while running for the vice presidency or, if it came to that, running the country. And it was conservatives who found themselves championing the feminist view that women can do it all — and denouncing skeptics as sexist.

Local Color We’re also keeping our eye on the “Alaska Politics” blog on the Anchorage Daily News Web site for the latest local reaction to the Palin saga.

At the R.N.C. Though the G.O.P. convention limped to a start on Monday with only an abbreviated schedule of speakers, which included First Lady Laura Bush and potential First Lady Cindy McCain, it looks like now that Hurricane Gustav has passed, the Republican gathering may be getting back on schedule today.

The Politico’s Roger Simon notes that the “big story” on the convention’s opening day was not about politics, but rather about sex, which he points out, “some consider almost as exciting.” Mr. Simon continues: “And while being pregnant and unmarried is hardly a phenomenon in America these days, it was not supposed to be the major talking point of the convention’s opening day.”

Outside the convention hall yesterday thousands protesters gathered, many were expressing their opposition to the war in Iraq. The Times’s Patrick Healy and Colin Moynihan report that “although most of the protesters were peaceful, the police used pepper spray and long wooden sticks to subdue some; several demonstrators also said police officers fired projectiles at them.”

As the Republicans meet in Minnesota, the Politico’s Jonathan Martin examines “what has gone wrong” with the G.O.P. in the Midwest. Opinions, differ he writes, but prominent Republicans in the region agree that in order for the party to regain its foothold in the heartland, “the GOP must focus on appealing to voters’ day-to-day concerns, highlighting kitchen table issues in a region where times are tough and many are fleeing for the Sunbelt.”

Obama-Biden on the Trail Senator Barack Obama stayed out of the debate about the pregnancy of Gov. Palin’s daughter, saying on Monday that it “has no relevance to” her “performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president.”

Assessments of the kind of team Mr. Obama and his running mate, Senator Joe Biden, make are continuing to pour in. Time’s Jay Newton-Small writes that “after 19 months of campaigning as the sole focus of attention, the moment was a telling one for Obama, who is learning to share the spotlight—for better and for worse—with a man whose personality is almost polar opposite of his own.”
Minneapolis-St. Paul Forecast A few showers in the morning, followed by afternoon thundershowers, high of 76 degrees. Partly cloudy skies tonight, low of 51 degrees.

“Before, they were excited about her, with the Down syndrome baby,” conservative, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist said. “But now with this, they are over the moon. It reinforces the fact that this family lives its pro-life values.”

You cannot make this stuff up. The VP candidate’s daughter goes against one of the basic ideas of right-wing sexuality, pre-marital sex, and gets pregnant, and it makes right-wingers even happier with the choice of VP?

Keep the rest of us away from that GOP Kool-aid.

More importantly, keep McCain away from the White House – this is his idea of a vetted VP candidate?

1) How does her selection reflection McCain’s thought/decision making process? Do we want a President like McCain who makes decisions by the seat of his pants?

2) Is Palin the maverick reformer McCain claims she is? Articles in the MSM in the last few days show that she lobbied for funds for her city while she was mayor (certainly something a traditional politician would do) and she initially supported the infamous Bridge to Nowhere before she didn’t support it (as reported in the NYT yesterday).

3) Did Palin abuse her executive power in Tropper-Gate? Nice guy or not, trying to use gubernatorial leverage to settle a personal score is wrong. Obviously, she is now concerned enough about the issue to hire a lawyer.

I can’t wait for the Republicans to win–then these bitter Dems will really go nuts…I love it. Then will win too, because the country is bigger than 2 coasts.

Hypocrites–it was ok for your potential Pres and/or VP, John Edwards to have a child out of wedlock, while his wife was home with cancer….and you are shameless in your attack on a 17 yr old girl who is not running for anything.

Even if she was running for something, like her mother, she has nothing nearly to be ashamed about as John Edwards.

Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.

Hypocrites–the Democratic Party. At least the Republicans practice what they preach, while the Democrats do not even put the most qualified up for President (because Hillary is a woman).

The sheer volume of posts to the NY Times political blogs concerning Gov. Palin illustrate the outright fear that the Obama supporters have about Ms. Palin’s candidacy. Honestly, if they believed so much that their candidate (Sen. Obama) was going to win, then why care one single iota about whether or not Ms. Palin was qualified or not to be VP or POTUS? It doens’t matter, does it? Your guy is going to win, right? I find it all very entertaining!!

It’s pretty hilarious that McCain has gambled his entire campaign on such as ludicrously weak sales pitch to former HRC supporters.

The sales pitch basically goes like this: indulge your anger and completely ignore every cause that Hillary ever fought for by voting for a candidate who has diametrically opposed positions to Hillary’s on virtually every single issue at stake.

Yeah, that should work. Not.

Despite all of the Republican trolls claiming to be Hillary supporters who have switched because of Palin’s anatomy, the truth is, no real Hillary supporter would ever spit in the face of everything that Hillary ever worked for by supporting McCain/Palin who stand against Hillary’s positions on every issue at stake.

I don’t really get the idea that secrets are pouring out. With the exception of the daughter’s pregnancy the other “revelations” were known to many people including myself and I am not exactly Alaskan last week. The Troopergate scandal as it is called has been in the press for months. If I know these things and I am not involved in politics why is the press and media surprised? Last week I listed Sarah Palin as one of four women I thought would fill the VP slot. Then come Friday the news is out and the media is SHOCKED. Who are these people? I’m as far away from the inside political track as possible.

I go away for the weekend and all hell breaks loose. ;) Hopefully, all the dirt on Palin is out now and we can concentrate on the issues.

Thank Goodness Gustov didn’t pack the punch of Katrina…I would say everyone did their job this time. Prayers to all those in the affected areas and to those who lost their lives. Onto the convention! Should be interesting.

NYT, your article in today’s paper about the protests at the RNC convention leaves out a lot of important information. Alternative media covers this story much better.

One example is your focus on the small number of protesters who were unruly (the vast majority were peaceful and well-organized) with no attention to the many incidents where police used illegal procedures and unreasonable force on peaceful demonstrators.

Another example involves your silence about pre-convention raids targeting protest organizers including a video collective that did a great job covering police misconduct during previous conventions (and who were doing nothing illegal).

Ms. Goodman was arrested while trying to find out why two of her colleagues were being arrested (they were trying to cover the events unfolding in the street). They were treated with brutality and at least two were injured. Apparently other journalists have also been arrested trying to cover the story, including reporters from the AP and the NY Post.

We will continue to lose our freedoms to police intimidation unless the mainstream press covers what is happening. Please, NYT, do your job. We need you to step up here.

The Huffington Post quotes Sarah Palin’s mother in law and Politico says she wasn’t really Miss Congeniality. This is hilarious. These are the revelations people are worried about. At worst this woman has a messy family. Remember the Carter clan anyone? It’s meaningless.

The fear has nothing to do with thinking Obama is going to win. The fear is that so many uninformed voter will never here the true facts about how totally unqualified this woman is if somehow McCain a 72 year old man with many serious past health problems is somehow elected. if anything should happen to him This woman would be running our country with all its major problems,that to me is a very frightening thought.

That isn’t the only Palin shoe to drop. There are tons more items on the Huffington Post and Politico about her. Even today there is talk that Lieberman was McCain’s pick but the push back from Black/Rove was so great that McCain went into a tirade and picked Palin out of spite.

A few points is not only the earmarks by Palin but that she was actually was a part of one of Ted Steven’s 527 groups, she supported the “Bridge to nowhere” until it became unpopular, and she was caught on local right wing radio laughing as the host called one of her opponents a b*tch. Also potentially damaging is that she is noted by locals to be a member of the Alaskan Independant Party..who sites removal from the “union” as one of their goals. In a transcript of one of their meetings and on video..they spoke of “infiltrating” local government and setting their agenda.

Not only that but the GOP has been basically trying to spin her inexperience as a positive..even going so far to say she is better qualified than Obama. Commander in chief of the Alaskan National Gaurd? Even officials in her state dispute that the governer is rarely noted about the daily details of the gaurd and it is largely controlled at the Federal level.

Meanwhile the GOP discard Obama’s background as a Harvard grad, Constitutional law professor, years as a state legislator serving larger constituencies(far more complex issues as well) than Palin’s town and 4 years as a Senator participating in domestic/foreign affairs. Not to mention through the process of nomination he has been vetted on his foreign/domestic policy knowledge and has been judged by millions of people to run as a candidate.

Palin was appointed regardless of qualifications by a 72 yr old man in an effort to appeal to special interests in his party…and in recent rumor..to stick it too his advisors. Palin is essentially a local pol and sophmore governer who was thrown into a fiasco of a campaign by John McCain.

Someone has been quoted as saying: ‘When McCain gets angry he almost always makes wrong decisions’.

Perhaps he was upset that Reps were against Lieberman? I can’t figure this one out, but it surely is not a good thing to start the VP campaign with so many scandals. I just hope it does not distract people from the real problems we are faced with.

Clearly, McCain does not know Palin at all. What if it turns out that they cannot even work together?

I don’t get the whole argument that the McCain campaign is being “slighted” by liberal bloggers. If Edwards and his wife couldn’t keep the news of their affair secret as they had wished, and even Elizabeth Edwards began to be criticized for keeping the news to herself, then why do Sarah Palin and her family deserve the same accomodation? Frankly, I’m disgusted that she trotted her family out for a media introduction and purposely draped her son over her pregnant daughter’s stomach, as if people wouldn’ t notice anyway.

If Palin is all about a fresh approach and doing things differently, then why did she begin her candidacy with the same old died in the wool, lying and spinning tactics voters are now accustomed to?

Let’s please get the conversation back to the issues. No matter whom I’m voting for, I want to hear about how we’re going to salvage the economy, create new jobs in the U.S.A., provide health care to those who need to most and end this devastating war in Iraq.

I urge all Americans, Republican, Democratic and Independent alike to put this personal development in the Palin family away from the spotlight and returning to discussing the important issues that will dominate life in the U.S. and abroad for the next 4 years.

TR, who are you talking about? Who are those hypocrites who have said it was ok for Edwards to have an affair and now are attacking Palin’s personal life? There may be people who have been saying that what Edwards did was ok, but I haven’t heard of any of them. Please tell us who they are. Hypocrisy is bad. So is making up stuff in order to attack it.

In determining the suitability of any person for the office of president or vice president, the candidates’ children must be required to submit to pregnancy and dna testing to determine whether they are or may become parents. The children of candidates to high office must be held to a very high standard as these children will be making critical decisions regarding domestic and foreign policy. Drug testing of the candidates’ children should also be required as well as a disclosure of their grades and attendance records. If I remember correctly, the Gore and Kerry children were not the best behaved. Al Gore junior was arrested on drug charges.Biden’s kids have ethical problems and the younger Obama child allegedly stole an Sponge Bob eraser while a kindergartner. Mr. Obama himself admits to be have been a drug user and worse when he was the age of Palin’s daughter. Glass houses.

The fact that Palin’s teenage daughter is pregnant is totally irrelevent and should have no bearing. The problem is that in picking her, McCain made a cynical tactical decision to counter Obama’s post convention bump. There was no strategic thought involved, a telling sign of McCain’s lack of experience and his illsuited temperment.

As for the Palin issues, #2 is spon on.

BTW, Edwars was never seriously considered by anyone other than the press on a slow day and obviiously, he wasn’t picked.

I almost feel sorry for the one-issue (abortion) Republican Party, they could have picked lame but qualified old Joe Whinerman (Leiberman) and rubbed our noses in his defection. Instead they chose to try to use this poor woman and her family to highlight family values and so forth. Revelations about Palin’s abuses of power in Alaska and lobbying for even more pork barrel excesses is probably discouraging since the Republican base got the VP candidate they always wanted (one they could control.) Now that these stories are coming to light less than four days after they introduced her to the world the McCain campaign is calling media coverage “offensive.” I don’t think it is offensive that the news media is finally doing their job by not giving McCain a free pass like they were before. I think it is great and thoughtful coverage occurred on the opening night of the Republican convention. My friends the Republicans are going to finally get their comeuppance in November!

The news, if true, that McCain was preassured into the choice for vice president should completely shatter the claim that he puts nation first. It also brings up the question of who is really in charge of this process and is this the leadership style of McCain, none.

I’m not even sure how to contrast this “drama” to the Obama campaign. I would like to compare apples to apples, but the bizzare nature of the McCain episodes makes it difficult.

Palin is wonderful. She has westerm appeal, is a strong intelligent reformer. She knows real change. She is managing a 40 billion pipeline in Alaska and has a lot of executive experience. I am a make voting republican for the first time ever.

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